Tribeca ’16: El Clásico Review

El Clásico review: When love and football collide, the result is an adventure of epic proportions

There are two moments in El Clásico –firstly when Alan (Wrya Ahmed) steps out on to his hotel balcony, telling Gona (Rozhin Sharifi) that she wouldn’t believe where he was at that moment and secondly, the loud whoop whoop whoop of blackhawk rotors spinning overhead – that bring back memories for me of a phone call from Baghdad. Albeit surreal, being spoken to 100 metres away from where Saddam Hussein was being held (at that time) and hearing about a roadside bomb experience, it was a description of and surprise at how incredibly beautiful Iraq’s changing landscape and inhabitants were, that had resonated most.

Director Halkawt Mustafa’s story of life in modern-day Iraq is a reiteration of those sentiments I heard about more than a decade ago.  What I like about the film is that despite its continued affectedness from war, unscrupulous individuals that prey upon the less fortunate, and a cultural mistreatment towards smaller people, there’s a genuineness and willing to help others that seeps through and endears you to their plight.

I also particularly enjoyed cinematographer Kjell Vassdal’s low height, straight- on angled and tracking shots of Iraq’s landscape with burnt out cars from roadside bombs, enforced curfews, silent streets and military checkpoints as it lends the film a distinctive visual style representative of how people of smaller stature see and experience the world without it being overt.

And sure, Alan and Shirwan’s (Dana Ahmed) experience of the world may be harsh and not uncommon but it isn’t the actual focus of the story.  El Clásico is about the strength that people possess when something of importance is challenged. Like love.

Tolerated and accepted (to a degree) within their Kurdish town in Hawraman, Alan is in love with his childhood sweetheart Gona and wishes to gain permission to marry her from her Real Madrid loving father Jalal (Kamaran Raoof).  Encouraged to ‘dream big’, Alan approaches Jalal with his request but as much as Jalal likes Alan, he refuses the proposal as he would never ‘let his daughter marry a man like him’.  Jalal wants Gona to choose her husband, just not Alan who may have ‘big dreams, but he can’t do anything big’.

To ensure the brothers know their place in society, Alan’s brother Shirwan is not only dismissed from Jalal’s employ as a Klash (traditional Kurdish shoes) maker, but he is also evicted from the home he shares with his wife (Nyan Aziz).

Determined to prove his love for Gona and that even small people can achieve big dreams, Alan devises an ambitious plan that takes him, his real-life, Barca loving brother Shirwan and a special pair of Klash – actually made by the brothers, in real-life- on a wild and perilous ATV road trip through bomb ravished Iraq to Madrid’s Estadio Santiago Barnabeu for the El Clásico.

For first-time actors, Wrya and Dana Ahmed give commendable performances as Alan and Shirwan, drawing from personal experiences to make the many heartfelt and heartless scenes feel believable.  The brothers’ natural camaraderie and comedic timing evolve organically and are quite entertaining when they arrive.

It’s a fantastical tale with a seriousness at its centre.  Some people might find the story a bit too much to be enjoyable, but I am not one of them.  I like that it was a little over the top, just like football… the overdramatic players… and die-hard fans.

El Clásico review by Sacha Hall, April 2016.

El Clásico is playing at the 15^th Tribeca Film Festival and can be seen on Sunday 17 April at 6:45 pm at Bow Tie Cinemas, Chelsea and on Wednesday, 20 April at 4:15 pm and Saturday 23 April at 9:15 pm at Regal Cinemas Battery Park.